For all the promise of communism creating a society of equals, behind the Iron Curtain in the 20th century, clear hierarchies existed. Towards the bottom? Soviet Jews, whose attempts to buy into the system in the Ussr were stymied by the removal of books about their culture from public libraries, and a general resistance to their efforts to attend the nation's free universities. The state's rationale for the stonewalling shifted from whispers about Jewish conspiracies to dismissive reminders that communism and religion weren't meant to mix. But then, when some Jews asked to emigrate, their requests were denied, as officials claimed that the Soviet Union couldn't let such smart, talented people leave the country and aid the enemy. Laura Bialis' documentary Refusenik traces the history of the international movement to liberate Soviet Jews. Many of the movement's leading lights are still alive, and they talk in alternately sardonic and.
- 5/8/2008
- by Noel Murray
- avclub.com
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